Bison Roadblock and Escaping Giraffe! Day 15

Day 15.

The start of my third week at Wildlife Safari. It was my job last night to pick up the donated produce from the grocery store. This morning I brought it down to the truck, and we all (Sarah, Angela, Matt, me) headed over to wake up the lions! Keeno is always already standing up and waiting for us. The others are usually still lying down, yawning, and stretching. :) We just go in to say good morning and make sure they all look okay, before going into their pens to check fence lines and spread enrichment. My part was to dump the water tubs out, scrub, and refill them with fresh water. When I finished, Sarah had Matt & I come into one of the front pens to see something- an area of fence had come loose from the post! A lion could squeeze out if it wanted! YIKES!! They called maintenance to come fix it, but didn't put lions in there today just in case. I left, while the fence was being fixed and lions put out, to go pick up the Brown Bears' breakfast from QB and wait at the Brown Bear hut for everyone else. It was a bit of waiting since the fence needed mending and the lions may have taken their time to go out into their pens! I relaxed a bit in the car before they showed up. :)

The other three finally came and took the breakfasts into the exhibit area, and I went into the hut to release the bears... "Claire, Russel, move off!"; "Victor, Mak, Oso, move off!" Today the girls got to go onto the inner yard and the boys on the outer yard, to mix things up a bit. :) They seemed excited.

I was left again to clean the hut on my own. I think I did a spectacular job! ^_^ I also noticed the Bison herd blocking the road and causing a traffic jam! haha!! At least half the herd was blocking the whole road! There were about 5 cars waiting for them, the lead car slowly driving and hoping to part them and make it through. They did succeed after a few minutes.

I also listened to the crows cawing, which I enjoy every day because they remind me of Ian's silly roller coaster scream. The quick one when we go down a small hill- "AHH!" hehe.

While I was spraying down the hut to rinse the cleaning solution off, some sparrows flew in to say hello. They always come in at that time. They must enjoy the wet floor. :)

Then it was time for lunch! While I was walking to the picnic tables a black bird came and flew into my head! Just flapped and then landed nearby and looked at me. It had a pretty yellow eye.

Once I finished lunch I had to drive to lion tower to take over the afternoon shift for the rest of the day. I took the standard car so I could practice. I don't actually think being able to drive in first gear at the park will make me any sort of expert in actually driving a standard on the real roads! oh well. hah.

While in the tower there was a Code Red Cross announced on the radio! Someone had hurt themselves in the walk-thru area. Not sure of any details, but about 10 minutes later it was "all clear". Then another announcement on the radio: Code 3! That means a non-dangerous animal is out of its area. There are different lands in the park: Africa, Americas, Asia. Between the lands are gates with cattle guards so the animals can't cross over into the wrong land. WELL, there is a giraffe who has figured out how to walk on the cattle guards! :O His name is Hidari (not sure on spelling: hih-dar-ee) and he has his own "Hidari watch" volunteers who keep an eye on him! LOL! So it was him that caused a Code 3 to be called. The man who called it laughed a little when he made the announcement. hehe. It didn't take them long to get him back into "Africa" and do the "all clear".

The tower was slow today. Just a trickle of vehicles the whole time. Keeno & Natasha slept all day, only moving when their shade had moved with the sun. I couldn't see Tau & Sarabi from my viewpoint. They were put in one of the upper pens due to the broken fence line I mentioned before, and there was a large tree blocking my view of it. We are wanting to keep track of any breeding behaviors because Sarabi's birth control will be wearing off now (she's almost 3, good breeding age) and the park is hoping to have cubs in the next year. Tau & Sarabi were approved to be bred together for the "Species Survival Plan" by the AZA. Well, I couldn't see them today, but hopefully they did something!

I spent the rest of my time in lion tower reading my book and making videos (requested by Mumu).

Once the last car came through my area, I called Bear tower to let them know and then I met up with Angela to go put Sanurra away again. We grabbed the "cheetah truck", went into her enclosure, told her "crate" to get her in, carried the crate out of the pen and lifted it onto the truck, drove to her pen in the cheetah area, and let her in! I also got to throw over her dinner. It was a pretty good throw that went about 10ft! (I was on a hill. heh) So she ran a little bit to get it- she must have been quite hungry! :)

Angela took me up to the cheetah lodge to watch for the last car to finish driving through the park (cheetahs/tigers is the last area to go through). Before she left me though, we walked over to the tiger pen and said hello to Leah & Saigon, brother and sister. Saigon was swimming in his pond and playing with some toys in there. SO CUTE! Angela left me then and I sat in the cheetah lodge for a little while. But then Angela came back with Matt and we all three went to put the tigers to bed and feed them. I just watched and took pics while Matt put the meat on their beds and Angela let them each into their own rooms. They came in fast! Dinner must be so welcome at the end of the busy day of sleeping and playing in a pond! :) When they were in their hut we walked into their empty pen and turned the water trickle off in the pond. It was pretty cool to go into their pen! I like walking where the animals go. ^_^

They left and I went back into the lodge and watched the last car come through and waved at them when they looked my way. Nice family. :) Sarah was close behind the last car so she could pick me up and close the last few gates.

And that was it! Nice relaxing day spent in towers & lodges!

bye for now! (TTFN, Alex!)